We Basically Failed the New York Times Soda Pop Quiz. Did You?

Do you think you know how much soda you’re drinking in an average “medium” cup at a fast food place? How about one of those free refill larges at the movie theater? This past weekend, the New York Times Magazine ran a story about a French marketing professor’s study into how well we can estimate the size of things that we’re eating or drinking–it turns out that people consistently guess wrong, and always on the side of lowballing how much food or drink is in a given container.

The Times also put a quiz up on its website, so you can see how your volume-guessing skills stack up against the facts. But don’t be discouraged if you’re way off (we definitely were). The professor who ran the study told the Times that the human brain isn’t great at geometry: even when you double the size of a cup, especially if it’s tapered to fit in a cup holder, we tend to think that it’s only increased by 50 to 70 percent. Maybe Bloomberg’s on to something! [The New York Times]